Open [Bluevein River] To Hunt Well

[Silnas Windhoof]

8 Summer, 513 When Silnas awoke that morning outside the gates of Riverfall, the scents of the Sea of the Grass tickling over her nose and the breeze fluttering her tent, her desire to go back inside Riverfall looking for work was significantly dampened. By the time she broke her fast on a heel of bread from her rations, sharing a little of it with her Strider, she could not bring herself to look at the city. She needed to hunt anyways, she rationalized to herself. Anyone who needed a guide out of the city wasn't going to be leaving anytime soon. And furs would sell. Her heart fluttered when she mounted Skytrotter, looking out to the horizon where grass and sky became one. She put her heels to her horse, and soon it felt as if Skytrotter truly was her namesake, the grass beneath her hooves blurring until it felt as if she barely touched it. Every hoofbeat made Silnas' heart pound, and she felt a smile cracking over her face, almost against her will. Some days, she wished she never had to leave this moment. But everything had to end. Silnas placed her hands on Skytrotter's neck, whispering in the horse's ear until Skytrotter slowed down to a canter, steering the horse to the bank of the Bluevein River. The azure waters gurgled beside them, and if Silnas strained enough she could catch a glimmer of scales beneath the waters. But she wasn't interested in fish. She brought Skytrotter to a stop, patting the horse's white cheek before dismounting. Skytrotter began to graze as Silnas dropped to the ground, parting strands of golden grass as she tried, in vain, to find hare tracks. Not that she had any clue what she was looking for beyond prints in the dirt. Maybe broken grass strands? Poop? Silnas frowned at the thought of having to get intimate with a pile of-- well--, but she needed to learn how to track. She knew of the burrows the mother hares would make near the riverbanks, now if she could just find... A hare ran in front of Silnas' nose, its hind legs kicking dirt in her face. It took Silnas a second to recover from her surprise, and another to register indignation and curse under her breath before she whistled for Skytrotter. The Strider came obediently, bathed in a subtle glow while Silnas mounted, and kicked her into a gallop. With her double-headed spear raised over her head, Silnas was determined to run that little hare down, seeing how it parted the grass as it tried to bound away. Maybe the spear was overkill. Maybe.

[Duce Hazimari]

He could not believe that he had been out manuvered by a rabbit as he got up off the dirt covered ground laughing at himself. Now it wasn't about the hunt, it was about the chase.He loved to go out into the Sea of grass alone to hunt. It helped him get away from the world to relax and enjoy himself, but having a difficult target to catch was a boost in his excitement. Duce used the skills learned from watching his father hunt checking the surrounding ground for the usual signs of movement.Foot prints, disturbed grass, broken stems or twigs, and if he got lucky, the rabbit left a messy trail for him to follow. He barely found anything to track the rabbit with. The ground was too hard from baking in the summer heat and freezing in the cold night for him to locate any good prints even if they were recent, and since it was the sea of grass, there were no twigs for him to look for leaving the only thing to look for which was a trail, but that was only if he got lucky, which was uncommon for him. Duce got on his hands and knees thinking like a rabbit. If he fell there, and the rabbit was running north then the trail couldn't be too far ahead. Thankfully he got lucky. The rabbit had left a trail so messy that an inexperienced hunter could follow. The hunt was back on as he followed the rabbits trail. By the looks of things, the animal made wide turns in some places and then sharp cuts in others. But what really got his attention was when he saw horse prints in the ground which meant that someone had to riding pretty fast for them to leave prints in the hard dirt. Duce continued to follow both tracks considering that they went the same direction, and had come to the conclusion that he was not the only one hunting the small animal. This made the hunt oh so sweeter. Not only was he on a chase but a race as well. He cut through grass seeing the general direction in which the new hunter was chasing their prey running as fast as his legs would carry him hoping that he could meet the hunter if not beat them to the prize.

[Tsarvik Lonewind]

Tsarvik Rode along the river checking his few game traps for rabbits and muskrat. He had come down from the north only a couple weeks ago to begin selling his end of Summer fur trade and had decided to set up camp along the Bluevein river and set up small game traps to help subside the costs of lodging for the couple days he would spend in Endrykas selling his wares. "Whoa Nivkir." he said to his horse as he approached his last game trap. Dismounting Nivkir and brushing the dust off his coat he kneeled down to inspect the trap. The dirt around it was disturbed a tell tale sign of rabbit in the area. Crawling closer to the trap he could see it was clearly sprung and had caught a decent sized hare cutting the thread of the snare and picking the rabbit up by it's ears to inspect the pelt. "Good good! Nice clean pelt decent amount of meat. I will be making at the least a few silvers from the hide and maybe the meat if I do not eat it myself." Tsarvik Said to himself as he tied the ears of the rabbit to his belt along with the other rabbit which he had caught in a earlier trap. As he prepared to mount his horse once again, the sound of a galloping horse made him pause looking off into the distance he saw a woman riding full speed after what he suspected was prey. Quickly mounting his horse and nocking an arrow on his bow he began squeezing the sides of Nivkir with his legs sending it off like a rocket across the wide open grasslands after the woman and her prey. With the chance of getting another rabbit on his belt and the sport of a good chase Tsarvik couldn't resist the opportunity.